Guinea

Overview

Guinea Overview

In Guinea PBF support has been instrumental in assisting the UN to accompany the country throughout a delicate democratic transition in 2007 /2010, leading to the first democratic election in the country, followed by the implementation of key peacebuilding reforms, including the reform of the Army. As a country having requested support from the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), and a UN ‘non-mission’ setting, Guinea is a priority country for PBF, with an overall investment of $58.5 million since 2007. In alignment with priorities agreed to by the Government and the PBC, the Fund’s support is focused on 1) Security Sector Reform (SSR), 2) National Reconciliation and 3) Youth and Women employment.

The currently active portfolio of PBF-supported activities in Guinea has focused on the electoral environment in 2015, taking into account the impact of the ebola crisis. Programmes supported a women’s network to enhance early-warning of conflict around the election, assistance with security-provision around the election, and work with political parties. Following the outbreak of the Ebola epidemic in 2014, PBF, recognising the important peacebuilding dimension connected to both the outbreak and the response to the virus, was quick to authorise the re-programming of $ 1 million under the Priority Plan in order to support conflict sensitive activities in the conflict-prone region of Guinee Forestiere , which were not originally contemplated in the response to the crisis.

The national reconciliation process is also a priority. PBF is supporting the Provisional Commission co-chaired by two religious leaders, Monseigneur Vincent Coulibaly and the Grand Imam El- hadj Mamadou Saliou Camara, in conducting national consultations across all regions of Guinea to design a national reconciliation process that responds to the preoccupations of the population.

In the area of youth and women employment, PBF concluded a partnership with the World Bank, whereby PBF funding of $ 2 million allowed the WB to scale up an important public work project, amounting to $25 million, targeting 2,400 youth (30% of them are women), in addition to the 34,000 workers already targeted by the main project, as well as to integrate a conflict prevention dimension, by targeting youth at risk of conflicts in hot spots in Guinea.

Earlier, the implementation of the Priority Plan of 2011-13 allowed for the achievement of important peacebuilding gains, particularly in the area of SSR. PBF provided critical support to the Government to kick-start a high-risk army reform. Moreover, PBF has filled a crucial gap in supporting civilo-military dialogue and civilian oversight of the Security and Defence forces including support to the Parliament. Guinea has also benefited twice from the Gender Promotion initiative, through a very innovative project that supports the institutionalisation of prevention and response to Gender Based Violence within the Security Sector Reform.

Within both the 2011-2013 Priority Plan and the 2014-2015 Priority Plan, PBF filled critical gaps in the establishment of a conducive environment for the elections and diffusion of electoral related tensions both at national and community level.

This project, co-financed with USAID and implemented by NDI, aims at strengthening trust between political parties during the electoral period and at promoting women’s participation in the local elections.

This project aims at supporting activities in view to diffuse tensions before, during and after the 2015 elections, including crowd management training to the security and defence forces, support to the media, community sensitisations.

This project aims at building the capacity and supporting the provisional Commission for reflection on the national reconciliation process, including through a national consultation process. The project also aims at supporting the commission to work towards a shared vision of history in Guinea

This project aims at strengthening early warning and conflict prevention and management mechanisms in areas where extractive industries work as well as to promote corporate social responsibility schemes within the companies

Under the Priority Plan of 2011-13, PBF has provided critical support to the Government to kick-start a high-risk army reform, resulting in the peaceful retirement of nearly 4,000 army members, for the first time since decays in the history of the country. Moreover, at the request of President Conde, PBF has supported the deployment of a Senior SSR Advisory team to the Presidency that has been instrumental in accompanying the Government in the formulation of a National Defence Strategy accompanied by 5 sectoral strategies. PBF’s support to civilian oversight, including civilo-military committees and to the Parliament has filled a crucial gap and contributed to the consolidation of democratic institutions. During both the legislative elections in 2013 and the Presidential elections in 2015, PBF’s support has been critical for trust-building and diffusion of tensions, including in hot-spots. Targeted and fast IRF support contributed to peaceful and transparent elections in Guinea by supporting civil society, and in particular women groups, to monitor the elections and activate early warning and mediation systems. In 2013, PBF supported the Women Situation Center , “Case de Veille”. It was the first time women election monitors were used in Guinea, with successful results in terms of both monitoring of elections and mediation of conflict as well as women empowerment, by other means than being candidates and voters in the elections. In Guinea’s volatile Forestiere region, where the first case of Ebola was recorded, timely PBF reprogramming enabled UNICEF and UNDP to jointly sensitise the deeply distrustful communities on the implications of the epidemic and preventive measures as well as strengthening early warning and conflict management/resolution mechanisms , helping the region to be the first in Guinea to be declared Ebola-free.

The overall strategy of conflict prevention related to the scrutiny is constructed upon the reinforcement of the political parties’ trust on the electoral process in parallel with an early warning and immediate response mechanism to answer threats to security and stability.

Currently, PBF is providing urgent support for the organisation of the 2015 Presidential elections, drawing on the lessons learned during the 2013 elections. In partnership with USAID and NDI, PBF recently supported a $ 1.5 million UNDP project aiming to train and deploy 3 political parties’ delegates in each of the 15,000 polling stations. The project will allow for the deployment of about 8,000 political parties delegates to increase transparency during the election-day. In parallel, another project’s objectives are to strengthen the capacities and to give a sense of responsibility to the different actors, especially security forces and medias as well as to ensure a monitoring of Human Rights.

Moreover, for the 2015 elections, PBF invested again in a reinforced IRF project “Case de veille”, amounting to about $ 600,000, with antennas in 7 conflict-prone regions, in addition to the capital Conakry, active before, during and after the poll through an early warning mechanism, managed by women, with direct linkages to traditional, community and religious leaders, and local and national authorities to settle possible conflict-generating situation. This project is currently contributing to the diffusion of tensions during and in the aftermath of the elections.

An independent evaluation of the first tranche of funding to Guinea (from 2007 to 2011) was conducted in November 2012. The evaluation found that PBF support was crucial to facilitate the delicate transition that led Guinea to the first democratic elections of President Conde in December 2010 and in addressing some of the root causes of instability in the country including the civil-military relations.